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Born Free Foundation and all our friends at WildCRU, have been truly amazed by the Compassionate Conservation Symposium held at LMH, Oxford, last week. So many wonderful speakers, so many quality presentations, so much compassion.

Intriguing subject matter as diverse as “First do no harm: hamsters, ferrets, and killing in the name of conservation’, `Kangaroo harvesting: do the means justify the ends?’, ‘Toward a synthesis of animal welfare, animal ethics and conservation’ and ‘Respect: a trimate legacy’, amongst many others, stimulated a wide-ranging debate that left delegates exhausted but elated. At www.compassionateconservation.org you can get a glimpse (the Symposium Abstracts) of the subjects covered by our speakers.

Animal welfare and conservation are two disciplines that for too long have been perhaps artificially kept at arms length. As David Macdonald said in his keynote address: “Both welfare and conservation scientists will benefit from the best scientific insight into the animal welfare implications and conservation and management practice’ – and so will the animals.

Following the conference we have received numerous positive comments back from delegates.  I think we realise that something very special happened in those few days. Described by one leading participant as ‘the best symposium he had ever attended’ the Compassionate Conservation Symposium could be, according to another, ‘the start of something new’.

Over the weeks and months ahead look out for more details on Compassionate Conservation at the website, including many of the Symposium presentations in full.

Blogging off

Will

Here’s the thing.  A new report, published in the journal Psychology & Society, apparently indicates that children aged 9 – 11, really do learn stuff when they go to the zoo.

How do we know?  Well, researchers (one who is a visiting researcher at the London Zoo) gave a small number of children a simple test intended to find out how much they knew about the sloth, meerkat, camel and jaguar (by drawing a picture of the species in its habitat) before the children took part in a zoo-based education session at (guess where) London Zoo.  They then asked them to draw pictures of the same animals sloths and meekats afterwards to see whether they had learnt anything.  (I am not an educationist but would it not be extraordinary if they did not?)

Apparently, a third of the children tested, showed there ‘a notable change in their understanding towards animals and their habitats’.

Only a third?  The authors excused the low percentage by claiming that “such a result does not mean that a knowledge change did not occur in the other pupils, it simply means that our methodology has not captured it”.  Remember, this study assessed a “formal learning” experience – not the usual informal wander round a zoo glancing briefly at animals in cages (between visits to ice cream stalls).

Of course, they did not take some students, sit them in a classroom, show them a film about meerkats, sloths, etc., and give them an educational presentation to see whether this also had a similar (or perhaps a more comprehensive) result. Nor did not follow up this study to see how long or how accurately the children recalled what they had apparently learnt at the zoo.

As a result of this “innovative” and ground-breaking piece of research, zoos will now claim (as London Zoo does) that they are providing a hugely valuable education resource that is going to deliver the conservationists of the future. They will also use this to justify the many hundreds of thousands of pounds that, for example, the City of London pays to London Zoo for educational services each year.

Sorry, from my point of view, this is ridiculous.

What would be fascinating is to take the same age group of children, ask them to draw pictures of wild animals in the zoo, then give them a presentation about the same species in their natural habitat and ask them at the end of that to draw the animals in their natural habitat and point out as many of the differences as they could find.

That would be really revealing!

Blogging off

Will

Dear Friends

Had a funny experience at London Zoo the other day.  I wanted to take a look at how the Gorilla Kingdom was coming along (sad). 

Went to the kiosk to buy a ticket and I was asked “Would you like to make a donation of £1.80 to support their conservation work”.  (It is a way for the Zoo to be able to claim Gift Aid on the full ticket price as I understand it!) 

“What conservation work exactly” I asked. 

“The conservation work of the Zoo” was the reply. 

“Have you got a leaflet about this conservation work” I asked. 

“No” said the attendant. 

“Then you cannot have my donation” I explained.

Incidentally, Gorilla Kingdom cost £5.3 million and since the Spring of 2007 to July this year, it has raised under £60,000 in donations.   Hmmmmm… not what I call a ‘silverback’ of a success.

Blogging off

Will

p.s. For more information on Born Free’s ZooCheck campaign, visit www.bornfree.org.uk/campaigns/zoo-check/

The barbaric practice of bullfighting has been outlawed for the very first time ever in a region of mainland Spain.  The parliament of Catalonia, in North-Eastern Spain, voted on the controversial subject following a petition signed by 180,000 Catalans.  Surely, there can be no better proof that, in the realm of animal welfare, public attitudes are changing, apathy is diminishing and governments are starting to listen. and we can expect to see an end to the tortuous, torturous deaths of bulls as a public spectacle by 2012

Let’s hope this signals the beginning of the end to the years of justifiable criticism Spain has faced on animal welfare issues – from stray cats and dogs, to photographer’s chimpanzees, to the recent exposes of conditions in zoos by Born Free partners in InfoZoos .

Through InfoZoos, our collaboration with Spanish NGO ANDA, which addresses conditions in zoos in Spain, 20 sub-standard zoos have been closed and regulations have now been implemented in eight of the fifteen Regions which had no zoo regulations at all.  We are continuing to campaign for the re-homing of Susi and Yoyo, two African elephants languishing in tennis-court-sized concrete enclosures in Barcelona Zoo. 

Our newest venture in Spain is InfoCircos, a coalition with ANDA and FAADA, which is aimed at raising greater awareness of the plight of wild animals in circuses in Spain and ultimately ending this heartless exploitation in the name of ‘entertainment’. 

If we are to change things, we need to act.  Together.  Nearly two hundred thousand citizens have brought and end to bullfighting in Catalonia. It just shows what can be done. Let’s apply this Catalonian passion, vigour and action to wild animal welfare worldwide!

Blogging off  – or, as they say in Catalonia, Adéu!

Will

P.S. Why not start now?  Join our Activate! Campaign or choose one of the many other ways of getting involved with Born Free and our campaigns.

Dear Friends of Wildlife

Feeling most honoured!  Riz Khan, who has interviewed so many extraordinary people over the years, very generously agreed to interview me for his Al Jazeera show, One on One.  If you would like to take a look, here it is.

It was a great pleasure.  He is a real gent.  I hope you enjoy it. 

Blogging off

Will

Dear Friends of Wildlife

The Budget – Yes. Cutbacks for animals – NO!

Well, it looks like pain all round – public employees, businesses, the less well off, the middle-class and the wealthy. Everyone is going to have to shoulder some pain to handle the public debt and who knows if the medicine will work.

But one thing is sure, we cannot let the animals that we care about be victims of this economic crisis. The dolphins stuck in a swimming pool in Turkey; two little chimps rescued from traders in Central Africa; the elephants confronted by the bloody ivory trade; the thousands of animals in slum zoos across Europe and the rest of the world; the wild animals still exploited in circuses in the UK; the millions of animals slaughtered for bushmeat; wild animals held by private individuals as ‘pets’; the rescued animals that we care for every single day in our sanctuaries around the world; the campaigns that we fight of behalf animals around the world who have no-one to speak for them except Born Free and you.

I am sure that as the financial changes just announced sink in, you will begin planning to manage your finances for the times ahead.

But I hope that you will decide to make animals in need a priority part of your plan, that you will include Born Free in your budget and that you will make sure that, as far as you can, the financial pain we will all feel does not mean more real suffering for animals in need.

My pledge to you as CEO of Born Free, as someone who has worked now for 26 years for a cause I truly believe in, is that with every penny, every pound that we receive we will do the very best we can to care for, protect, rescue and help the animals, whatever the future holds.

Blogging off

Will

***Update***
LATEST NEWS JUNE 22: I am happy to report that, despite mounting fears for their welfare, the three animals have been found alive and well inside the abandoned trailer. However, this still leaves many more questions than answers: How did the two original drivers lose the animals in the first place? Who took them and why? Why are wild animals being shunted from location to location by Bowmanville Zoo in the first place and is this form of animal exploitation acceptable? Should the zoo, in fact, be reclassified as a kind of circus?

Details are still sketchy at this point, but we will let you know any further news when we get it.

Background story:

It was reported over the weekend (20th June) that a truck and trailer containing a tiger and two camels from a Zoo in Ontario, Canada, had been stolen.

En route from Nova Scotia in Eastern Canada, the truck and trailer containing the three animals disappeared when the driver parked them outside a motel for the night. Initial claims of an “opportunistic” robbery became increasingly unlikely when the truck, without trailer, was found 73km away from the site of the theft.

Born Free Foundation is particularly concerned that an unsecured trailer containing three wild animals was simply left outside a motel while the driver slept. Furthermore, the fact that a tiger, a large carnivore, and two camels were enclosed within this same trailer may have subjected the animals to significant levels of stress. Both these situations seem to show little regard for the animals’ welfare or for their safety.

Born Free hopes that this situation, which has become a worldwide news story, will be resolved as soon as possible for the sake of the animals. We also hope this is a ‘wake up call to the authorities in Ontario, exposing, as it does, their almost total lack of adequate regulation regarding the welfare, security and transport of wild animals. According to ZooCheck Canada, Ontario wild animal legislation does not have any licensing or permitting component that requires current or potential animal owners to have the necessary expertise, experience or financial wherewithal to properly house and care for wild animals.

The supplier of the animals, Bowmanville Zoo, offers Animal Encounters and Animal rides on its website, and is famous for hiring out its animals to the television and film industry – a form of animal exploitation that is becoming increasingly controversial. This, surely, is another area the authorities should bring under control.

In the meantime, we hope to hear soon that the animals are being well-cared for wherever they are.

Blogging off

Will

Dear Friends of Wildlife

On the brink? A new report by the UN Environment Programme’s Chief Scientist, Prof Joseph Alcamo, states, “Since 1970 we have reduced animal populations by 30%, the area of mangroves and sea grasses by 20% and the coverage of living corals by 40%. These are clearly unsustainable”.

What on earth is going on?

This is the Year of Biodiversity! We are supposed to have halted the decline in biodiversity loss by 2010 but what with palm oil, oil spills, deforestation, the bushmeat trade, our addiction to beef etc., it looks like we have failed and it is, of course, wildlife and habitats that suffer.

Check out the ‘Homeless Animals’ campaign on Born Free’s website for some thought-provoking images by top photographer, George Logan, and Steve and Katy, the Creative Team at WCRS.

Please send this to everyone you know – it is not too late.

Blogging off

Will

Well, it’s all change that’s for sure. We now seem to have the makings of a Government of National Unity and I just hope that this spirit of common endeavour extends to making sure we end the suffering of needy animals and improving the protection for threatened species and their habitats. As a nation we could make no better start – and show our true colours – that by ending the use of wild animals in circuses – something 94.8% of the British people want to see happen (according to a recent Government Consultation process). Then we could move on to enhancing our performance and commitment to the protection of threatened species such as rhino, elephant, gorilla, chimpanzee, orang-utan, lion and tiger (not forgetting the critically endangered Ethiopian Wolf). I was pretty unimpressed by the UK’s performance at the last CITES meeting in Doha where (along with their EU colleagues) they singularly failed to secure greater protection for species such as the Atlantic bluefin tuna.

Now I’m a generous person and I don’t expect miracles so I’m willing to give the new administration a chance – the opportunity to prove themselves. Shall we say 100 days? Seems fair enough to me… let’s see.

Blogging off

Will

US and EU Soft on Ivory

Hello hello!?

Just hours after the ivory debates at the CITES conference here in Doha, 24 uncut ivory tusks have been intercepted by the Civil Guard in El Masnou, near Barcelona, Spain.

Spain is currently the President of the European Union, the 27 strong community of nations that holds such sway at CITES meetings. Until yesterday the EU’s position on the two pro-trade ivory proposals (one from Tanzania and the other from Zambia) remained largely unknown.

When it came to the vote however, the EU abstained on the downlisting component of both proposals (from the no commercial trade category of Appendix I to controlled trade category of Appendix II) and voted against the ivory trade request contained in the Tanzanian proposal.

I wonder: Did they know that such a major seizure (one of the largest in Europe for some years) had just taken place?

It really is now essential that we stop fence-sitting when it comes to ivory trading. Let’s focus our attention on conserving elephants and kill the trade once and for all.

Believe it or not, the US spoke out in favor of downlisting Zambia’s elephants to Appendix II to allow commercial trade! Why are the world’s “superpowers” not “superconservationists”?

Born Free is committed to helping some of Africa’s poorest nations save their elephants. You can help too at www.bloodyivory.org.

Blogging off,

Will